Man gets 15 years in attack on prosecutor's office

Associated Press

August 18, 2014 - 3:45 PM

MEDFORD, Ore. — Alan Leroy McVay hoped to delay the three-year burglary sentence he was facing last year. His idea was to destroy the records of his case by detonating a 7-gallon propane tank hurled through the window of the prosecutor's office.

His plot fizzled. The device broke a window, but it didn't get into the office and didn't explode. Prosecutors said the case could have been reconstructed from digital files anyway.

On Monday in federal court at Medford, McVay was sentenced to five times the burglary sentence: 15 years. He agreed in May to a plea deal on a charge of malicious destruction of property by explosion.

At sentencing, McVay said he was sorry, the Medford Mail Tribune (http://bit.ly/1tb1eHI) reported.

"I understand that lives were at risk, and I didn't want that," he said.

McVay threw the device at the prosecutor's office before dawn Nov. 13. He was due in court the next day for sentencing on a plea bargain over burglary and theft charges.

Had the bomb exploded as intended, most of the building would have been destroyed, explosive experts said.

McVay appeared in court with his elbow in a cast. He broke it over the weekend playing kick ball at the jail.

Judge Owen Panner said he hoped 180 months in prison would help McVay recover from drug problems.

"It won't be easy," Panner told him. "You haven't spent a lot of time in the penitentiary."